LOWER EASTSIDE GIRLS CLUB

If you read this week’s Voice and thought Yongman Kim’s scheme to relocate the entire Kim’s rental collection to Sicily was pie-in-the-sky, get this: the Kim’s Video mogul tells The Local that he plans to open an “alternative and interactive pizza store” on Avenue D.

Kim’s Video Makes a Pizza, as the venue will be called, will be located at 101 Avenue D, in a new building facing the Jacob Riis Houses that is home to the Arabella 101 rental apartments (it’s also the future home of the Lower Eastside Girls Club).

Mr. Kim said the pizza parlor and wine bar would “intermix the new business and the old using the Kim’s Video mentality and personality.”

If that sounds similar to Two Boots, Mr. Kim thinks otherwise. “My restaurant would be a full-sitting restaurant where young and night owls gather and talk about music, films, art and other cultures,” he told The Local.

The switch to pizza follows what Mr. Kim said was a decline in the video business that started in 2001 and worsened in 2005. “Digital has hurt my business and so has the Internet. It is what caused me to close most of the Kim’s locations,” he said, adding that he had tried, unsuccessfully, to go digital in 1994 (well before Netflix, he pointed out). “I was preparing the Internet venture side of my business. I organized my team and it didn’t work,” he said. “It failed over and over again.” Read more…

The Lower Eastside Girls Club will field two new softball teams with the help of a $5,000 check, but the check itself disappeared before it could be presented at East River Park yesterday afternoon.

SportsNet New York planned to turn over an oversized $5,000 check to the Girls Club, to go toward uniforms and equipment for its new Avenue D Sluggers. But before that could happen, the car containing the giant check was towed away, all but kiboshing the presentation ceremony. But there’s no crying in baseball, or softball, either – so the folks at SNY gave the Girls Club 100 tickets to a Mets game on July 24 and promised to present the check then.

The donation is being made in honor of the 40th anniversary of Title IX, which bans gender discrimination in educational programs receiving federal assistance, and will allow two teams of girls aged six to 12 to play at East River Park every Saturday. It’s the first sports team that the Girls Club has fielded in a few years. Read more…

Our photographer Noah Fecks noticed a sign, as did EV Grieve, on the door of Affaire on Avenue B indicating that the lounge has been closed by the Department of Health for operating without a permit. We’ll let you know when we have more.

Foursquare isn’t the only tech start-up moving out of 36 Cooper Square. The Atlantic notes that Curbed and Hard Candy Shell are also leaving the building that was the birthplace of the Hartz Mountain pet supplies empire and is still home to the Village Voice. Kevin Kearney, the CEO of Hard Candy Shell, says, “I think that now the people are leaving there’s not gonna be anything left. I think we all would’ve stayed if we could’ve figured out how it worked. If The Village Voice had finally gone under, we could’ve taken over.”

A blog in the Curbed network, Racked, reminds us that later today, Bedlam Bar at 40 Avenue C will host the Bright Young Things Holiday Market: “Markdowns go up to 50% off, and participating designers include Bijules, Chrishabana, and Mary Meyer. There’s an open vodka bar from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Becka Diamond and Nicolette Santos of the Six Six Sick Girls will DJ.” Read more…

Meredith HoffmanThe actress Rosario Dawson leads members of the Lower Eastside Girls Club in a cheer at a ground-breaking ceremony Friday for the club’s new home.

Meredith HoffmanMs. Dawson spoke at the ceremony (top) before joking around with some of the club’s members. She was joined by local elected officials, including City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez.

Dave Pentecost’s eyes gleamed as he pointed up at the steel and wood building frame being constructed over East Eighth Street near Avenue D.

“That’s where the 30-foot high dome of the planetarium will rise,” said Mr. Pentecost, the technology director for The Lower Eastside Girls Club. During a brief tour, Mr. Pentecost described the green features of the $26 million, 12-story building that would soon fill the muddy construction site, from green roofs to solar panels, which would produce electricity for the site, to water collectors which would water the gardens holding a sculpture created by neighbor, the artist Kiki Smith.

In addition to 78 units of mixed-use housing, this will be the future home of The Lower Eastside Girls Club. The Norwegian maples which had filled the lot had been cut on site and made into lumber which would eventually serve as tables in the conference room. Mr. Pentecost is looking forward to seeing a ‘58 Airstream trailer soon hoisted into place and converted into a state of the art recording studio where local girls would learn recording technology.

The ground-breaking ceremony Friday was graced with a parade of politicians and dignitaries including Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Council Member Rosie Mendez, Borough President Scott Stringer. The loudest applause greeted actress and neighborhood celebrity Rosario Dawson as she excitedly told how she looked forward to working in The Girls Club library.

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Hello, Neighbors

The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards. Read more »